


the dream of a boy, not a man

by LandlessBud



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Scifi?, Steampunk, Steampunk AU, anyway!, asian dirigible captain jack kelly, funky little latino steampunk engineer davey jacobs, gonna tag characters/relationships as they appear, maybe i'll actually finish a series for once who knows, that way i don't get too ahead of myself lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 10:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18892993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LandlessBud/pseuds/LandlessBud
Summary: Davey Jacobs has a literal dream man.Captain Jack Kelly isn't the best dirigible pilot in town.





	the dream of a boy, not a man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PenzyRome](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenzyRome/gifts).



Davey frowned as he screwed in the last cog on the automaton. Something was still off. For some reason he could never get the face quite right—even though it had followed him in his dreams for years. Slumping in his chair, he gazed around his workshop. Dozens of half-scrapped artificial faces stared back blankly at him, wondering if he’d ever figure out his mystery man.

The dreams had started a few years ago. Sailing through the sky, the boy (though now grown into a man, and quite a handsome one at that) would grin and say something inaudible before pulling Davey into a boiler room. He was always smudged with grease and dirt: tiny, star-like holes peppering his shirt. And happy. He was always so happy to see Davey, dream after dream. Skies, Davey wished he could find the man.

Gears clicked quietly as the cog finally set into place. Davey studied the face, trying to figure out what was missing. Obviously it was vaguely inhuman—automatons were never perfect replicas—but Davey was skilled in his craft as well as sculpture, which lent more humanity to his creations and earned him a reputation as one of the better mechanics in Algonquia. He relished this title, as it meant his family wouldn’t go hungry the way they did during his apprenticeship. Sarah, his sister, was able to fend for herself more than well enough, but his parents and Les, his younger brother, needed all the help they could get. His father had irreparable damage to his leg after a mishap during a routine maintenance check on a client’s mechanicals. Davey had sworn not to be a lowly technician ever since the incident, and here he was five years later with his own tool belt and workshop.

He stared into the automaton’s face yet again. Was it the shape of the ears? No, he had fixed that in Revision 5. How about the forehead? That was adjusted in Revision 17. The quirk of the eyebrows? That was what Revision 38 had been for. Davey peered into the eyes. That was it. He hadn’t managed to find the proper shade of brown for them. The man seemed to have rich, warm eyes of a shade that didn’t match any of the thousands of glass eyeballs Davey kept in his workshop. Frustrated, Davey cast the mechanical head aside and took his face in his hands. All he wanted was to understand why this man was in his dreams.

Suddenly, Davey’s drawers of eyes began to rattle. Sounds of yelling filtered in as he attempted to control the cogs and springs that began to bounce around his workshop. Something that sounded suspiciously like a large crash only increased the chaos, and Davey ran to the nearest window to see what it was. He gasped.

A massive, steam-powered dirigible sat upended in a large crater in the middle of what used to be the field that was very conveniently located right next to his workshop. Great. Exactly what he needed when he was on Revision 54 of his latest project.

Someone knocked at the door to his workshop. Davey prepared to defend himself from whoever had crashed a dirigible on his land.

“Hello? Is anyone in there?” the knocker said, voice somewhat muffled by the door. “I, uh. We need some help.”

Davey reached out for the nearest tool and crept towards the door, positioned to fight whoever was on the other side.

“Please?” the voice continued. “I’m sorry we crashed into your field. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Davey snorted, forgetting that he was trying to be somewhat stealthy.

“I know you’re in there! Open up!” the voice pleaded.

Sighing, Davey cracked open his front door, keeping the door chain locked. He held the tool out in front of himself, intending to be threatening. “What do you want?” he asked, making his voice a little deeper to seem scarier.

“You’re really going to threaten me with a paintbrush?” the voice answered, attempting to open the door a little wider.

Davey looked down. “Oh. Um. Yes. Yes, I am going to threaten you with a paintbrush. Don’t you have any idea how dangerous they can be?”

The voice laughed.

Davey was enchanted. Reflexively, he unhooked the door chain and opened the door all the way.

This was a bad idea. Right in front of him stood his literal dream man.

Davey froze. He couldn’t let the man see the faces he’d been constructing. No matter how much he begged for shelter, Davey could not house him in his workshop. That would only end badly. Very badly.

“You going to invite me in? Or are you going to keep standing there like a dirigible just crashed right in front of you—oh. It did. Uh. Earth to—what’s your name?” Dream Man waved his hand in front of Davey’s face.

“Davey. Davey Jacobs. That’s me. Yes. I’m Davey,” he blurted, trying to recombobulate. Davey reminded himself of Revision 2 of the Dream Man automaton: its head would not stop spinning after he wound it up, no matter what he did.

“Hello, Davey-Davey Jacobs,” the man replied in a smooth baritone. “I’m Jack. Captain Jack Kelly of the dirigible Manna-Hata, which is usually airborne and not sitting in a crater in your field. Sorry about that.” He scratched his neck nervously.

Davey laughed nervously. “I don’t, uh. I don’t use that land much anyway. I guess… it is a nice change of scenery.” Davey stuck out his hand for his dream man—sorry, Jack—to shake. “Nice to meet you, Captain Jack Kelly. I hope you, ah, get a chance to fix your dirigible soon.” 

“Thanks. And that reminds me—our last engineer jumped ship about a month ago. Hence the. You know.” Jack mimed a fall and explosion. “So. I noticed your workshop, and I was wondering—would you like to join me—us?”

Davey gaped at Jack. Were his dreams really coming true?

Jack rushed to continue. “You don’t need to decide right at this minute—I don’t think we’re going anywhere for a while. But if you’d like to meet the crew, get a feel for all this: you’re absolutely welcome to.”

Davey smiled. “Sure thing.”

“Thank you so much,” Jack said, grasping Davey’s hands in his. After a beat, he pulled them back. Davey’s heart was racing faster than any of the engines he’d ever built.

Eventually, Davey broke the silence. “Uh, thanks for coming by, Jack. You’re, ah, you’re welcome back anytime. I just. I just need to clean up from my latest project right now.”

“Oh, interesting! What are you working on?” Jack asked.

This was a huge mistake. Davey knew he shouldn’t have brought up his project. It would only serve to scare Jack away, and Davey didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity to fly through the aether just yet.


End file.
